Case Study
DIRECT MAIL MARKETING & NETFLIX

Shooting for the Moon—and Featuring TV Stars—With Direct Mail Marketing

What kind of online company advertises through direct mail marketing? The best kinds, that’s who.

You know how every year naysayers predict something new will spell doom for Netflix? Well, that’s been happening since day one and we had a front row seat. Of course, it was easier to believe when they were being challenged by goliath Blockbuster in a true brand war. We’re proud to have played a part in their growth over almost a decade.

It all started when Netflix did the unthinkable—the most radical and disruptive entertainment company in the industry dared to use offline marketing to drive online sales. They wanted more scale. And they dared to believe their digital would be enhanced by a traditional channel other than television—direct mail marketing.

INDUSTRY
Entertainment

AUDIENCE
B2C
United States
International

WORK
Strategy
Direct Mail
Email

That's the Ticket

We started our direct mail marketing campaign by challenging their now-famous red ticket control within the context of our proprietary multi-variate testing methodology the PowerTest™. So began a best-in-class cycle of ongoing quarterly testing for continuous improvement.

Success with direct mail marketing evolved into other channels—win back, gift subscriptions, holiday, and referral programs—where direct mail was used in combination with email marketing.

When Netflix introduced streaming and disrupted themselves, we tested to identify the messaging that best explained streaming while driving trials just as cost effectively. Testing ahead of every change—devices and original content—helped keep an edge on a winning approach.

We even took it global—supporting entry within international markets across nine countries on three continents. Years of domestic free-trial generation was leveraged for successful launches in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, and the Nordics.